t’s simple: If a person was given a brush and paints, this does not make him an artist, and if a scalpel – a surgeon. Likewise, having a camera or camera phone does not make a person a videographer. If you want to keep the impressions and emotions in the video as vivid as possible and make it fun to watch, you need to learn how to shoot video correctly first. Ready? Then the motor!
Table of Contents
Tip # 1: don’t start by buying a camera
Many people mistakenly think that buying an expensive camera will automatically help you shoot better. Well-known photographers and videographers have repeatedly refuted this misconception by filming excellent shots and videos on the simplest soap dish or phone. Spend a lot of money, but you won’t get better quality in principle.
To get started, experiment on kitties – a phone, a budget,, or a second-hand camera – to master the rules of composition, working with light and sound. So you will empirically understand what functions are important for the type of video you are shooting, and most importantly – do you like shooting at all
Tip # 2: Hold your camera (phone) correctly
One of the main problems with videos taken by newbies is a shaky or jerky image. Professionals use tripods, rails,, and trolleys to stabilize the picture. A tripod is a simple, affordable device for the amateur, ideally to shoot from it. But even if you have it, it is not always with you. In this case, there are unwritten rules for filming, developed over the years of practice and experience of the masters.
Place your camera or phone on a solid surface. You can sit down at the table and lean your elbows on it, but this opportunity is not always there either. More often you have to shoot while standing. When a person takes pictures on the go, the camera in his hands begins to shake, vibrate, tilt, etc.
Hold the camera correctly and your body can perform the basic functions of a tripod – a rigid construction that eliminates camera shake and shake.
Hold the camera correctly – not with your arm outstretched looking through the flip-up screen, but with both hands, resting your elbows on your stomach and looking through the viewfinder. This design provides the rigidity of position, and with it the stability of the image. Legs can be shoulder-width apart to increase stability.
If you need to get even better footage, there is a simple trick: in addition to the camera, take a bag in your hands. Let it hang under the camera on the thumb of one of your hands. This will make the entire arm-camera structure heavier and will significantly smooth out the occasional shaking of the arms. The main thing is to choose the weight according to your strength – you are unlikely to hold a full package of food from the supermarket on one finger for a long time.
Tip # 3: If the video is staged, write a script
Want to shoot a bouncy YouTube video? Start with a script! It only seems as if your character knows what he will say and do in the frame. When shooting, hums, scans, parasitic words, awkward pauses, and running eyes will begin. A person can automatically begin to make strange gestures with his hands, wrinkle something, pull something. All of this is unlikely to look good on recording, which is why you need a script.
It is better to first collect all the necessary information, and then edit the text and break it down into semantic parts to make it easier to shoot. It is important to speak the same language as the audience since the video is always created for the viewer. Be sure to read the text before filming. Sometimes it looks fine in writing, but it’s hard to say it out loud.
It is almost impossible to shoot a truly high-quality video without a script. The best improvisation, as you know, is the one that is prepared in advance.
Write in words that are easy to read and listen to, and start sentences with subject and predicate. After reading, simplify the words and sentences you stumbled upon. Consider the smallest nuances. For example, if the hero blurts or does not pronounce “l”, it is better to minimize the number of problematic words for him.
Another common problem is camera fear. Without shooting, a person behaves freely and organically and closes in front of the lens. The solution is practice and experience. Over time, we get used to it and stop responding to the camera. Relax the hero of the video. Shoot a few junks takes while holding it down. When he calms down, stops playing, and becomes himself – start shooting the original.
Tip # 4: Don’t Shoot Everything
The aphorism about the sister of Talent – Brevity is also true for video. The shorter your video is, the more likely it will be watched to the end. Aim for timing of 2-3 minutes. And remember that any action in the frame looks lively and is perceived better than a motionless person. The main thing is not to make the common mistake of beginners who walk for a long time with the camera on, transferring it from object to object. The result looks especially sad when zooming is abused.
Change plans, shoot in chunks, pause. Taking more does not mean better.
Please note that in movies and TV shows, the frame changes approximately every 5 seconds – these are the features of the perception of the picture by the human eye, for which this frequency is optimal. Protracted shots will have to be cut during editing, changing plans and angles, inserting interruptions to make the film look good. To avoid the difficulties of post-processing, it is better to change your position and shooting angle, shoot in separate fragments, rather than continuous, alternate general, medium, and close-ups, take pauses.
Tip # 5: distribute the space in the frame correctly
If you’re just starting, stick to the Rule of Thirds, a simplified version of the classic Golden Ratio rule. In this case, the frame is divided into 9 parts (3 horizontally and 3 vertically), and the key objects are located along the section lines or their crosshairs. If the subject is moving, leave plenty of space in the direction of its movement.
In general, a little space should always be left, because the subject of shooting can change its position, straighten up or stand up. If you are photographing children, a dog, or a cat, descend to their level by squatting. Otherwise, when they run closer to you, the back of the head or back will appear in the frame, and this is not the best angle. Keep an eye on the background so that lights, trees, or pipes don’t stick out of the hero’s head in the frame.
Tip # 6: Look for stories and heroes – your plots should create a picture
If you are not just having an interview or speech, but something like a movie, a finished story, build a storyline – describe each scene and sketch out a keyframe diagram. The text must be rendered. If, after reading, the picture does not appear in your head, then the script turned out to be so-so. Try to determine for yourself what feelings and emotions the viewer should feel from the video as a whole and a particular scene – this will help to build it correctly.
Find inspiration everywhere. Learn to think wider behind the scenes. It sounds trite, but it’s enough to live with open eyes and ears. When you sit in a cafe, ride in transport – listen and observe people. If you don’t go out, then at least get inspired by the news reports.
Heroes around us. The main thing is to see them. And immediately remove
Keep in mind that when working on a script, what first comes to mind is that on the surface, which has already been filmed a million times before you. If you want to properly shoot videos on YouTube and other popular hosting sites, then do not be lazy to think and experiment. Refine your idea and make a truly original video.
Tip # 7: Consider lighting
The light determines the atmosphere and mood of the video. Natural daylight will make the video cheerful and light. As gently as possible and without sharp contrasts of shadows, the light is scattered before noon and after 16 hours. When shooting indoors, do not place the model with her back to the window. The light should be behind you and illuminate the subject evenly. If you are photographing a person, then he is in front of you, and behind your back is a light source that evenly illuminates him. For example, the same window.
Unlike a photo, it is difficult to correct an incorrectly set white balance in a video. Pay special attention to this.
The white balance setting compensates for the effect of light sources on color reproduction. For example, when illuminated by an incandescent lamp, the colors can go into yellow, when illuminated by a fluorescent lamp, they can turn into blue. Abrupt transitions, for example from the sun to the shade, can also cause color imperfections – the camera does not have time to quickly react to the changed lighting.
Tip # 8: Use a video editor for editing
After shooting, the work does not end – editing is ahead. You will need to stabilize the image, crop the frame here and there, cut and paste something. Quiet, intermittent, and noisy sound can spoil the whole impression of the video – it is better to pre-process it. Make sure that after replacing the sound with a clean one there is no desynchronization of the picture with the audio track. The graphic component is also important: captions, covers, texts, etc., which are best done in the same style.
Only a few are capable of filming a video without editing – either geniuses or super-professionals. If you want to shoot, immediately master the programs for processing.
In general, if you are serious about shooting video, then you cannot do without a special program. In addition to the listed basic functions in decent video editors, you can stabilize the image, get rid of shake, replace the background when shooting with chroma key, improve the overall picture quality, apply various effects to the video, save the resulting result in different formats – for viewing on TV, on the phone or for downloading in the social network. But we’ll talk about how to learn how to edit video another time – this is a topic for a long, separate article.
The white balance setting compensates for the effect of light sources on color reproduction. For example, when illuminated by an incandescent lamp, the colors can go into yellow, when illuminated by a fluorescent lamp, they can turn into blue. Abrupt transitions, for example from the sun to the shade, can also cause color imperfections – the camera does not have time to quickly react to the changed lighting.
Tip # 9: About taking pictures with your phone – in a short line
We figured out how to properly shoot video with a camera. Now let’s go over the main nuances of mobile photography. Do not shoot vertical videos with your phone. Remember to clean the lens before shooting and check if there is enough memory available. The main purpose of the phone is not video recording at all. If you want to shoot decently using his camera, use special applications where you can configure additional shooting parameters: frame rate, audio codecs, manual focus and exposure control, white balance, etc.
In addition to compactness, portability, lightness and availability, the phone has practically no advantages over a normal camera. However, having slightly froze, you can shoot a decent video on your phone.
The digital zoom used in many smartphones is not much different from simple zoom. This leads to the appearance of noise and pixelation in the picture. It’s more useful to just get closer to your subject. Mobile flashes are still far from ideal. An additional light source is better, even if it is the flashlight of another phone. The main thing is not to shoot against the light.
You don’t have to count on good sound with the built-in microphone either. If the quality of the audio track is important to you, get an external microphone. If you can still shoot a good video on your phone, then you will hardly be able to edit it in a high-quality mobile video editor. In order not to aggravate the situation, it is better to do editing on a computer.
Tip # 10: Shoot!
If you wait for years for good weather, a cool camera, or an interesting storyline, you will never shoot anything. Skill and mastery come with experience. Perhaps the first video will come out so-so, but the tenth one will definitely look better. Just for fun, ask your friends to compare your 100th video with the first one – they will think that they were definitely filmed and edited by two different people. One is awkward clumsy, and the second may well take on orders for video filming.
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